In Starlit Company
by signelchan
Summary: Having very little interest in planning the big day, Maki lets Kaito take control of the wedding plans, and finds herself going through the motions for an evening engagement underneath a starry sky.


For the wedding in question being her own, Maki was rather hands-off when it came to almost everything relating to it. She didn't have family to impress, all of her friends were fine with whatever she did as long as it made her happy, and she happened to be marrying someone who didn't know the first thing about weddings, so things seemed to be going rather well for her at the moment. All she needed to do was get through the preparations that she herself had to be present for, as well as the actual ceremony, and then she'd be able to put the whole thing behind her, never to be lived through again.

Because of her desire to stay as distant from the overall planning as possible, her involvement in preparations was highly limited, and everything that she possibly could push off onto someone else she did without hesitation. The one thing she ultimately did on her own, for herself, was go dress shopping, but that was only because she couldn't send in a body double to do it for her when she didn't know anyone quite her size. That was an uncomfortable series of afternoons where her and the few friends whose opinions on the matter she trusted went into a posh dress shop and the attendants did all they could to push her to try on the gaudiest, most elegant wedding dresses they owned. Without fail she turned down each and every one, despite Kaede telling her that she _should_ wear something a bit more than the simplest dress in the store, and soon they were bringing out the plain, undecorated gowns that Maki still didn't feel quite at home in when she tried them on.

It took more days than she liked to admit, but after regularly being dragged back to the shop she was able to walk out with a dress that she felt suited her, as well as the occasion that it was for. "If I could, I'd just wear normal clothes for this," she reminded Kaede when her friend started to kick up a fuss about the lack of glitz and glamor the dress contained. "And besides, whose wedding is this? Yours? Didn't think so, don't try to push what you think would work on me when I get to make the call."

"Geez, I didn't think I sounded pushy when I said that you could've gotten something a bit flashier, but okay I guess." Huffing as she crossed her arms over her chest, Kaede turned her attention away from Maki for a moment, before almost immediately going back to looking at her, eyebrows raised. "But now that you've got your dress, what are you doing about your bridesmaids? Your maid, or maybe even your matron, of honor? What colors do you want them wearing?"

"Who said anything about me having anyone in any of those positions?" The response was made simply to rile Kaede up further, as she gave a low whine to state her displeasure with the idea that she'd be in such a helpful position and not be given some role in the ceremony itself. "Seriously though, it's a night wedding. Colors aren't worth a damn, just anything but white and—no, Kaede, you're not wearing pink to my wedding."

She watched as Kaede's spirits deflated at that instant shutdown, having known what she was going to jump to before it was even given a chance to be stated. "Okay, okay, no pink but purple is totally on the table, isn't it?"

"Doubt it. Night wedding, the guys wearing black would be a disaster because of it being dark, you'd be best to find something else to wear." She may not have been involved in the planning for more than a second at the time, but Maki knew very well that the man she was marrying had fully intended to wear a purple-colored suit for the ceremony, to draw attention to him in the darkened venue they were having the wedding in. Being able to remind Kaede of this and let her know that she wasn't allowed to encroach on the groom's colors just like she wasn't allowed to wear the same thing as the bride was different, but it made her feel a bit smug having done it.

Over the following months Maki had to go back to the dress shop several times to make sure that the gown she'd picked was altered properly for her body, but as she was a tiny little thing who never grew much it was more of trying it on and seeing that it still looked like it had the day she'd picked it up. Sometimes Kaede would go with her for the alteration appointments, other times it would be other friends (usually Himiko, who would sometimes even come along when Kaede was there), but regardless of who was there the end result was always the same: Maki would put on the dress, the shop attendant would remark that nothing needed to be done about it, and that would be the end of everything. It did feel like a waste of time, but she was assured that it was done to make sure nothing happened to the dress while it was waiting for the big day.

As the date drew nearer, she would hear the occasional conversation about the ceremony and everything related to it, but she was kept out of it all for the most part. There were times where, while in the middle of discussing things with whoever he was talking to, Kaito would look at her and ask her what she thought about something, but she felt that she had little room for an opinion on matters and would gladly tell him so. He didn't seem to mind her disinterest on the topic, but he would always try to get her to be involved in some way, whether it was talking about seating arrangements or finalizing the food that would be catered after the ceremony ended. His attempts usually fell flat and she'd go find something else to do while he talked, but at the end of the day he wasn't bothered that everything in regards to planning seemed to be on his shoulders.

Eventually, the day was upon them, and they woke up that morning in each other's arms, him having started cuddling her in their sleep at some point and her having been too deeply tired to notice it until she woke up with unruly facial hair poking her in the head. "You're really going to go through this looking like an unshaved idiot?" she asked him, once they'd unlinked and were both laying on their sides, facing each other. "I mean, it suits you, don't need to convince everyone you're someone you're not, but with how grand of an ordeal you're making this out to be, I'm surprised you're keeping the look."

"What? Of course I'm keeping it, I've had the goatee since before I met you and I'm not gettin' rid of it just for a wedding! You love me with it, no use changing in what ain't broke, you know?" Laughing, Kaito reached up and gave his facial hair a gentle stroke, an act to which Maki scrunched her face. "C'mon, Maki Roll, you can't start acting right now like you wanna care about what happens tonight, you haven't cared this far."

"You're right, and I still don't care much about it. All that matters is that after tonight, no one cares what the hell we do when we're here alone, because we'll be married." That was her main motivation for going through with the whole wedding song and dance, because she hated the judgmental comments she'd hear time and time again from people who were appalled that a couple could live together and share a bed while unmarried. Sure, a lot of people their age went through the same issue and didn't react by planning a nighttime wedding to get married underneath the stars, but Maki's initial reaction to most things was to attempt murder, and she couldn't exactly act on that with strangers who'd done nothing but have an old-fashioned mindset about relationships. She was looking forward to being able to tell people off by saying she was married and that she could do as she pleased, and that was the one bright spot to the whole ordeal.

On the other hand, Kaito had a lot of bright spots he was looking forward to reaching over the course of the evening, and he wanted to remind his to-be bride of them as often as he possibly could. "Yeah, after the wedding'll be nice because we'll be married, but what about everything before it? Aren't you excited to hear what I've gotta say about you to everyone? I know I can't wait to know what you're gonna say about me, there's bound to be so many things that you can't possibly list 'em all."

"I'll tell you what I'm saying right now. You're cute, you're caring, and you put up with me, that's why I'm marrying you." How much of her response was sarcastic and how much of it was legitimate, he'd have to wait for the ceremony to find out, but knowing how opposed to everything she was he could only guess that she was telling him the actual meat to her vows, and that put a small frown on his face. "Seriously, Kaito, I don't know what you're expecting me to say but I can tell you it's not going to be anything crazy, I'm not flattering you in front of your family and friends to make you feel better."

"Fine then, you want to keep things short and simple, I can do that too! I'll just haveta call Shuichi real quick, he's a good sidekick and is helpin' me keep all that stuff in order. He can edit my vows to make sure they're just as boring as yours, I bet he'll do it without even asking me why!" Rolling onto his back, Kaito reached to grab his phone but was stopped by Maki lifting herself up and getting on top of him, which made him laugh, choosing to caress her face rather than continue reaching for his phone. "Damn it, Maki Roll, you're so cute when you're on me like this."

"I wonder why that is," she remarked, her eyes shifting away from his as her face began to heat up, her feeling his other hand beginning to snake its way into her underwear. They may have just woken up on the morning of their wedding, but there was no better way to de-stress and prepare themselves mentally for a long, emotional day than starting the day by getting into each other's business.

Once they'd finished up, both of them back into the clothes they'd gone to sleep in, they were moving around the room, trying to play off what had just transpired as being something typical for them, not an extra activity. The truth was, it was rare that they had the time to be having sex like that in the mornings, and for it to have happened on that particular morning felt a bit strange at best. Neither of them were going to question it, though, and they were going to act like it hadn't happened so that when they got to sleep together again that night they could pretend it was the first time that day they'd done so. There wasn't much for them to do so early, however, and that meant a lot of awkwardly moving around, trying not to bring up the fact that they'd gone to town on each other without any prompting.

By the time noon came around they'd crawled back into bed for a second round, just to make time pass by faster, and once again they were left having to pretend like they weren't resorting to sexual acts in order to make things happen. Soon would be when they went their separate ways for the rest of the day, not to see each other until they were at their moonlight wedding ceremony, and as much as they both wanted the night to be there they didn't want to have to say their temporary farewells. Being in the other's presence was far too comforting and fun to willingly go their separate ways, even though it was for something as important as their wedding.

Eventually Kaede was there at the door, asking for Maki to grab whatever things she needed and to come with her, and she had to be witness to the pair slinking around their home like lovesick puppies, until she was able to properly convince the bride to follow her out. "If I didn't know better, I'd think that you didn't want to leave because you've been sleeping with him all day," she slyly remarked, seeing how Maki squirmed at the suggestion. "Trust me, I know how that can feel sometimes. It gets like that when you have schedules that totally conflict with each other, you really start wanting to get your bones jumped whenever you get the chance."

"Whoa, didn't ask for that personal information, Kaede," Maki replied, heaving her bag of things onto her shoulder as she walked with her friend towards their getaway car. She was glad she didn't have to worry about grabbing her dress right then, as it had been stored at Kaede's place so that Kaito couldn't accidentally see it, but now she was regretting asking her friend to do that for her, if it meant opening herself up to more content like that. "I didn't take you as a sex fiend, but here we are."

"H-hey, no one said I'm a fiend, I'm just saying that _sometimes_…" With a laugh, Kaede dropped her sentence right there, seeing Maki's disgusted face at the subject matter. "I'm sorry, I can stop anytime. We've got a lot to do today before we get to the wedding, so there's no point in being pokey and slow about getting back to my house! I'm so excited to be able to help you all day, this is going to be great!"

Scoffing, Maki wanted to sarcastically say that she thought it was going to be fantastic, but she was thinking too much about the idea of turning around and going back inside the house to get more alone time with Kaito to say anything at all. She remained silent for most of the ride, not wanting to open her mouth and say something she'd regret, and the only time she started to talk was when they were just about to their destination. "What, exactly, are you planning on doing to me?" she asked, the comment about having a lot to do that day finally sinking into her mind. "I didn't sign up for anything except wearing a dress and saying some dumb words in front of everyone."

"Don't worry, it's nothing too crazy," Kaede assured her, but Maki was wise enough to look and see the smile sneaking onto her friend's face. "Just hair, and makeup, and nails if we have time but that's up to the person doing hair and makeup, since I'm not that person."

"Oh, exactly what I needed, someone else getting wrapped up in this disaster of a day and telling me how I need to look." The thought of someone she didn't know being in charge of making her look what was considered acceptable for the ceremony didn't sit well with Maki, but she didn't have much of a choice and she knew it. She couldn't exactly tell Kaede, who was doing as much as she could to make everything run smoothly, that she was against the whole idea, but at the same time she knew as the bride she had some amount of say over what happened. But if she had wanted to exercise that power, she probably should have started using it way before their current moment, before her close friend had started taking the reins on all the planning for how she was going to look.

As it turned out, she was just jumping to rash conclusions that weren't particularly necessary, because the person waiting at the house who'd been tasked with dolling her up wasn't a stranger at all, and was in fact someone that they both knew. But it did feel a little cheap that the chosen person was someone who specialized in costumes and preparing to dress up like fictional characters, not someone who knew what they were doing when it came to weddings, and it was when Maki made a comment about that that Tsumugi awkwardly laughed, bringing her arm up so she could chuckle into her elbow. "You don't really think I'm doing this all by my lonesome, do you?" she asked, holding a brush and some pins in her hand. "I'm not qualified to do your makeup, but I've styled enough long wigs to know exactly how to do your hair for tonight."

"If you're just doing my hair, then who's…" Her voice trailing off as she looked to Kaede, who was shrugging at her as if she didn't know the answer herself, Maki went to look at Tsumugi to grill her on what was going on, but she'd already disappeared to go grab more materials to properly do her task.

It wasn't for several minutes that the other person who'd been arranged to help with the preparations showed up, coming into the house with a makeup bag in one hand and a coffee in the other. "Sorry, I felt I needed a bit of a pick-me-up before getting here, didn't want to start falling asleep on the job," Rantaro apologized, offering a sip of his drink to both Kaede and Maki and having them turn it down, shrugging when he was able to drink it himself. "So I've heard I've got a blank canvas to practice on, huh?"

"He was the only one who was willing to volunteer to do this," Kaede explained when she saw Maki's murder-filled glare shoot in her direction. "Besides, I trust him with this sort of thing, dude can pull off a killer smoky eye on himself so he should be able to get something beautiful happening on your face."

"When I roll up to my wedding looking like a raccoon, I'll know exactly who to thank for the honor," Maki snapped in return, hearing Rantaro cough to try and get her to look his way. The second she did, he was holding up bottles of various makeup to her cheeks, trying to match shades as best as he could without opening a thing. While he got to work, and Tsumugi came back with her various supplies needed to style Maki's hair, she was left sitting there at their mercy, with Kaede bustling around nearby getting other things taken care of.

The makeup was finished first, and after he assured her that she looked fine Rantaro moved on to work on Kaede's face, to try and get as much done as possible in what time they had. He was finished with her face as well before Tsumugi was done getting Maki's long hair up entirely, so he whipped out a bottle of pale purple nail polish and quickly painted the pair's nails, before getting some other colors out as well and making tiny star and moon designs on whatever nails he felt were big enough for them. It was obvious that he was much more comfortable doing nails than he had been doing makeup, but when he brought a mirror over and finally showed Maki what her face looked like, she felt like she couldn't complain too much about the job he'd done. Sure, she didn't look quite like herself with the contouring and the highlighting he'd done of her narrow facial attributes, but she certainly looked better than she would have had she had to do it herself.

"If you think it looks bad, don't worry too much about it," he said, moving the mirror for her to see different angles of her face. "This wedding _is _taking place at night, it's not like anyone's going to be checking every little thing on your face when there's so little light. You'll look great when it comes time to get home after, though, and that's a promise."

"Er, thanks for that," she replied, feeling herself start to blush at the reminder that she'd get to go home after the wedding and get back to the business that had been started that morning. She couldn't see even a trace of her reddening cheeks through the makeup in the mirror, which was a testament to how much Rantaro had used, but she couldn't complain when it meant that people would never know if she was having impure thoughts or not.

Kaede was completely at ease with what had been done to both of their faces, and because she wasn't doing anything with her hair that wasn't something she could do herself she was able to give Rantaro a hug while in the middle of pinning her bangs back. "You offering to do that was the sweetest thing, for me but especially for Maki! Where would either of us be if you weren't here?"

"Doing your own makeup, I'm sure." He laughed, which made Kaede laugh, but Maki knew that if she so much as twitched she'd get a stern reminder from Tsumugi that she needed to stay still, or else she'd disrupt the work going on behind her. She so badly wanted to know what kind of monstrosity was being created with her hair, which was long and thick and could have little done with it beyond tying it back, because by that point they'd been there over an hour and she hadn't heard a thing.

The silence turned out to be because Tsumugi was so focused on what she was doing that she hadn't thought to give any kind of progress report on things. She announced the completion of the hairstyle a while later, by patting Maki on the shoulder gently. "I guess comparing your hair to styling a wig was a poor comparison to make, but it turned out nicely! There were more braids than I was expecting, which I feared would make the design look bulky, but it all worked out, I assure you. Would you like to see?"

"I'd like to!" Kaede cut in, jumping to behind the bride to see her hair first, the sight of which inspired to give a loud, impressed whistle. "It's like a spiral of braids, it's really cool, I bet Kaito will love it when he sees it!"

"Oh yeah, because he's going to care about what my hair looks like," Maki grumbled, knowing that he would see her bangs at most, and those looked exactly like they always did because she kept them short and covering her forehead. Yet when she was able to get turned around to have the mirrors showing her the back of her head, she was highly impressed at what she could see had been created with those many braids that Tsumugi had been talking about—they were spiraling into one another on the back of her head, but they were ultimately creating the image of a crescent moon in the middle, which went nicely with the theme of the wedding being underneath the starry sky. "Wow, color me surprised that you made it work for me, Tsumugi. Great work."

"Thank you for the praise!" she chirped in response, before pulling Kaede aside to talk to her about something. That left Maki and Rantaro there alone, but Rantaro was busy drinking his now-cold coffee and looking through his phone, so she was really left by herself for the moment. Without the need of staying still being there, she got up and started walking around, trying to find where it was that Kaede had put her dress so that she knew for when it came time to change, but before she made it too far she had two ladies grabbing her by her arms and dragging her back to where she'd been sitting.

Despite her protests, they were able to get her back down without any explanation for why she needed to still be there. "Just wait a second, you can't go wandering around the house without someone guiding you," Kaede chided, sounding as stern as she could as she spoke. "It's, like, bad juju or something if the wrong people see you."

"Are you telling me that there's other people here right now?" Surprised and a little shocked that she'd just heard that be suggested, Maki felt a sense of relief when she saw both Kaede and Tsumugi shake their heads, but that didn't explain their behavior. "Okay, so no one's here, then what's the harm in me going to find my dress? This place isn't bugged with security cameras, otherwise they'd have been picking up hours of porn over the years, and I know you too well to know you wouldn't let that happen."

"I…yeah, it's not that there's cameras out there, don't worry!" Laughing to play off the wild comment she'd just heard, Kaede motioned for Tsumugi to leave the room, which she did without question. "It's more like, others are about to _start_ showing up and I don't want it to be you that they see when they get here. And no, it's not Kaito or anyone who'll be seeing Kaito before the wedding starts, don't jump to that idea."

Maki rolled her eyes, wanting to say something about how that idea seemed like the only reasonable one for the reaction her trying to leave had gotten, but she knew that whatever Kaede was going on about, there had to be a valid explanation. It came a few minutes later upon Tsumugi's return, when every other woman that Maki herself had invited to the wedding came into the room, all holding their own dresses and outfits and looking excited beyond imagination to be there. "Wow, it's half the guests almost, right here in this room," she said, giving them all a half-smile in greeting. "Let me guess, no one knows where the damn wedding is so we're all riding together, huh?"

"That's not quite it," Kaede corrected, before turning to the larger group and giving them the directions of where they could and couldn't get dressed, and that they needed to do that sooner rather than later so that everyone could be ready when it was time to go. As they dispersed and began getting themselves ready, she grabbed Maki's hand and pulled her to her feet, before leading her out of the room to somewhere where it was just the two of them. "It's time for us to get dressed too, and then once everyone's good to go we're going to hope that the car's here in time so that—"

"We have a driver?"

"—yeah, actually, how cool is that? It was one of Kaito's ideas that as many guests as possible show up together, so we worked a plan out to have almost everyone meet at one of several places and get a ride from there!" Kaede seemed excited about that detail, and Maki was impressed with it, even if she'd never heard of the plan before right then. It was a casualty of not being part of the planning, she supposed, and so she let it roll off her shoulders, just like her shirt moments later when she started getting into the dress she'd selected for the big event. It wasn't hard to get it on, and it fit her tiny body exactly like it always had, but there was a sense of realness to putting on her wedding dress there in Kaede's house, rather than at the dress shop where she'd been trying it on time and time again.

There were two options from that moment: she could either go through with things, or she could back out at any point until the ceremony was over and pretend like she'd never gotten so close to getting married. Obviously Maki was going to go with the first one, she absolutely loved Kaito and how he had looked past all of her flaws and weaknesses in order to commit himself to her, but as she stared down at herself in that dress she wondered if it would be better for her to go with the second option. She wasn't a traditional bride by any means, with her scarred arms (and matching, as well as hidden, legs) and perpetually angry-looking face, but she knew that Kaito didn't care about those things because he loved her for what she was, inside and out. "I'm sure people are going to think I could've done so much better with this one," Maki said after pushing the thought of cancelling the whole wedding from her mind. "It's really boring to look at, and I'm sure my guests want some kind of beauty to be staring at during the ceremony."

"I don't know what you're talking about, that dress is perfect for you!" Kaede replied, before offering her back towards Maki so that she could zip her dress up for her. She'd gone with a somewhat similar style to the bride's dress, although not nearly as long (as Maki's dress dragged on the floor a bit, whereas Kaede's barely went past her knees), and the dark blue color was reminiscent of an evening sky right as it began turning to night. Together they looked pretty good, and anyone who looked at them both could tell that they were most likely going to the same wedding, which was key. After they were both ready, Kaede gushed for a while over how beautiful she thought Maki was, while Maki took the compliments with a forced smile, and then once the deluge of praise was over they were leaving the room to meet with everyone else.

There must have been a memo sent out that people needed to dress similar to the night sky, as there wasn't a single person present who wasn't wearing some kind of deep color. There were dark reds, blues darker than Kaede's dress, and there was one single brave soul wearing a black gown, with a large white ribbon tied around her waist. "Where'd Rantaro go?" Maki asked after she was finished being attacked with more praises from her friends, nearly everyone falling silent and shrugging at the question. "Nice, pretty sure he's supposed to be there tonight and now we don't have a clue where he is."

"That would be because he's a degenerate and he's not allowed to ride with us!" Tenko called out as an answer, putting her hands on her hips and letting them slide into the pockets of her deep blue romper, which was predictable for her to be wearing given the ability to start fights and maintain modesty in it. "He left while you two were gone, so he could catch his ride to the venue without our help. Good riddance, we didn't need him around here anyway, am I right, ladies?"

There were some mumbles of agreement, but it was Kaede's voice that drowned them all out with her insistence that Rantaro was actually useful, and he'd been present for a valid reason that day. "If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have gotten our makeup or our nails done, so we can't say we didn't need him just because he's a guy!" Shaking a finger at Tenko to scold her for what she'd said, Kaede added, "Plus, you should be nicer about him because he gave up his seat so that you could sit with who he knew you'd want to sit with during the ceremony, so don't be rude, okay?"

Whatever came next, Maki wasn't sure, because she was beginning to feel overwhelmed at everyone's presence and the fact that things were actually going to be happening. She wasn't used to being the center of attention, she was usually the one in the background doing things that no one else noticed, she had no idea how she was going to survive going through her own wedding ceremony with all of these eyes on her. That was part of why it was at night though, she knew, but it was a lot easier to just say that they were doing it underneath the stars because that was how Kaito wanted it to be. The more layers of distraction between her and the crowd the better, and she was lucky to be marrying a guy who was an actual walking distraction to help her out.

All at once, the world around her froze and the next thing she knew she had several arms supporting her, keeping her standing. "Have you been taking care of yourself as of late?" Kirumi asked her, her hands being the ones on her arms pulling her slightly forward, while Kaede and Tenko each had an arm out against her back. "Hydrating correctly, eating decent meals, everything that you need to do in order to be successful? Did you have breakfast or lunch today? We do not want to watch you faint in the middle of your wedding."

"I wasn't about to faint, don't worry, I just got a little bothered by how many of you are in here right now. There's a lot going on for someone like me, so you can all get your hands off of me and act like nothing's wrong, because there is nothing wrong, thank you." Slowly everyone heeded her word, Kirumi's second hand being the one that lingered longest, but soon it was like nothing had happened and that Maki hadn't ever spaced out to the point of nearly knocking herself to the ground.

It wasn't long after that when there was a loud honking coming from outside, and everyone made their way out into the front yard of the house, a large limousine parked outside with a driver standing at the door to help the ladies in. She greeted each and every one of them with a smile and a friendly compliment, saving the best for last when the final two ladies came out together. Hearing a stranger tell her that she looked radiant made Maki feel even more unsure of how she was going to survive the night than she already had felt, but Kaede nudged her and told her to accept the compliment for what it was, knowing that her best friend was having a hard time mentally processing what was going on. Once they were both inside the back of the limo, everyone shifting around so that the meager wedding party wasn't the first ones getting out upon arrival, the door closed and the driver took her own seat, heading off into the evening without anyone telling her where to go.

The drive was long and filled with people's chatter about what they thought the nighttime wedding was going to be like. It wasn't the first wedding any of them had been to, but the other one they'd all attended had been very traditional (exactly as the bride and groom had wanted it), and the experience from that one was what had helped get this current one planned so efficiently. Everyone had such high expectations for the night that Maki didn't know were going to be lived up to or not, but she didn't dare say a word to anyone about how they might have been overhyping things to be something they never were going to be. She wanted them to believe that she was going to be the perfect bride, and Kaito the perfect groom, and that their wedding was going to be one of the nicest ceremonies any of them ever attended simply because of how quirky it was.

But it was clear she didn't believe that herself, something that Kaede pointed out about halfway through their trip away from the city to get to where the ceremony was being held. "I know you're thinking about how this is going to go wrong, and I'm going to need you to stop," she said, setting her hand on what she assumed was Maki's knee, but was hard to tell because of the long gown she was wearing. "It's all going to be okay, it really is. You're going to walk in a single woman and walk out married, and you're going to have a family you share a name with and things are going to be great. I promise you're just worrying too much."

"Maybe I am worrying too much," she hastily whispered in reply, Kaede giving a small nod to show she heard what was being said, "but I'm not ready for this attention, I'm really not. You're all expecting me to be a perfect bride and it's not going to happen, I'm not perfect and nothing about me ever will be, which includes this."

"Stop right there, you're just being too negative. Think positively, think about how great everything's going to be and how amazing you'll look up there at the altar and how lovely the stars will look and…" Struggling to come up with something else to say, Kaede looked around at everyone else before something came to mind. "And how much fun you'll have tonight after it's all over!"

Amused at the last point and how it seemed to be the prevailing argument everyone had to make, Maki managed a small smirk before saying, "There's only going to be fun after it's over if it goes well, and I'm not sure that's going to happen. I might say the wrong thing, or Kaito might, and if either of us do then it's all downhill from there."

"Geez, you really are being negative about everything," Kaede said with a pout, squeezing her hand on Maki's knee. "Please, for me and for everyone else, try just a little to be more optimistic about what's going to happen. You really should only get one wedding night in your whole life, you've got to make it count!"

She knew that her friend was right, but switching her mindset to being more positive about the night's events that were quickly approaching them was difficult for Maki, who thrived on being isolated and negative about almost everything. Even once they'd arrived and all gotten out of the back of the limo, the driver coming around to help them all out and giving a special farewell to the bride (because while everyone else would be riding back the same way, it was assumed that Maki and Kaito would be going back together, alone), she hadn't quite shaken the fear that something large and bad was looming on the horizon. But all she could see on the literal horizon was the setting sun, marking the day's descent into night and the starting time of the wedding fast approaching.

Maki and Kaede had to go sit out in a specially-set tent while everyone else was allowed to go to their seats, the ladies all expressing their excitement in various ways before disappearing into where the rest of the crowd inevitably was. Now that they were alone together again, there was room for conversation but neither of them said anything, both of them beginning to mentally prepare themselves for what they were going to have to do. There inside the tent were the last things they needed for the wedding to go off without a hitch, from the bouquet for each of them to the veil and some specially-selected pieces of jewelry for them to wear at their necks. They helped each other get the star-covered necklaces on, Maki's having her married initials engraved in the middle of the biggest star while Kaede's had the initials she'd been living with since her own wedding the previous year, and they were both proud to have received such a lovely gift at such a stressful time.

Their way of knowing that the ceremony was starting came when they heard music beginning to fill the night air, the sound of which made Kaede wince. "Whoever Kaito asked to play is doing it all wrong," she grumbled, adjusting the front of her dress to make sure it looked appropriate before heading towards the entrance of the tent, waving for Maki to carefully follow her. "I mean, I know who he asked to do it, and I'm totally going to talk to her about playing her notes carefully when she's at a wedding, but I guess it's getting dark so maybe she can't see the keys? Then that's forgivable, sort of, except she really should know the keys by heart, and this song's so familiar that once you've played it enough you tend to remember how it should sound and—"

"Kaede, no offense, but I couldn't care less about your sister's piano playing." Maki didn't want to seem rude but hearing her friend droning on and on about piano music was not helping her current mental state, and when she saw Kaede's apologetic bow she knew that her snapping like she did was enough to get her to focus on what was important. "We're about to go out there, I'm about to make a complete fool of myself in front of all these people I know and a lot more I don't, and you're going to talk to me about music."

"—to be fair, it's what's happening right now." As if the gods above heard her, the music stopped and Kaede was able to breathe a bit easier no longer hearing such awful keys being hit. That relief subsided almost immediately, though, because the next song started up and they both knew that was the cue for them to begin making their way out towards the altar. Leaving the tent was the easy part, it was waiting behind the strategically-placed curtain at the back of the seating area that was much more difficult, and every second that Maki had to stand there after Kaede had begun her walk down the aisle with her arms linked with her husband (who happened to be the best man, naturally) was almost excruciating. She didn't have a father or even a father-figure to walk with her like they did in the movies, she was completely by herself, and that approach was going to be one of the first signs everyone was going to see that this wedding was far from traditional.

When the music hit a high note, sustained for far too long but completely intentional, she took in a deep breath and began her walk, feeling everyone's eyes on her the second she came out from behind the curtain. All of their stares were piercing, but none were quite as powerful as Kaito's, as he got to see the woman he was devoting himself to all dolled up for the first time in their lives. He was mouthing something, she could see his mouth moving even in the dim lighting, but she knew that unless he told her right away, he'd never remember a word of it. Focusing on his face, on how he looked relatively normal to his everyday appearance except he was wearing a purple suit and matching tie, was what got her through that long walk, every step feeling like it was going to be the last before she turned tail and ran out of the area, escaping her fears and the attention. When she got to the end, since there wasn't anyone to give her away to him as was seen as tradition, she went right up to take her place across from him, finally able to see that his eyes were brimming with tears of joy at what was going on.

"You look beyond amazing," he whispered in the quiet moment as the officiant began the opening speech about what gathered them there that night. It was strange hearing a male voice there at the side but from what she'd heard the man specialized in non-traditional ceremonies and wouldn't spend too much time rambling on about unnecessary things. In fact, he seemed eager to get right into the meat of their appearance there, as if he knew that one of them wasn't keen on being the focal point of the evening, and pretty soon he was beginning to lead them through his repetitions of statements and their vows that they'd custom-made for the occasion.  
Unlike what she'd threatened to do time and time again, Maki did in fact have something meaningful to say, but her words were, by order of events, left to follow Kaito's, and if there was one thing that man wasn't capable of it was being subtle about things. He took his chance there in the moonlight, stars twinkling overhead on a perfectly clear night, to profess his love and adoration and belief in the woman he was marrying, and by the time he'd finished he was almost crying, she certainly was, and most of the people there to witness their union were reaching for tissues. She had to take a couple seconds to collect herself to keep her words from coming out garbled, and when she did speak she had to make sure that she was able to hold everyone's attention with her words.

Where he'd talked about how much he believed in her, and how that had shaped their romance, she touched mostly on how he had been there to support her when she didn't think she needed anyone in her life. His persistence had obviously paid off for him, and yet she wanted to make it clear that she was the one who'd expressed romantic interest first, so everyone being forced out there in the dark was ultimately because of her. No one cried at what she said, as they were all still recovering from Kaito's words, but from the corner of her eye she could faintly see several people nodding in understanding of what she'd said, accepting that they were perfect for each other in their own special way.  
With that out of the way, and with the exchange of their rings that they both knew cost next to nothing and would rarely ever be worn out of convenience, the ceremony itself came to an end just as quickly as it had started, and everyone was allowed to cheer and revel in the newly-married couple's presence. Things shifted immediately from there, as the night was in full swing and they couldn't be out there in the open space after the midnight hour, and within minutes the area was flooded with lights and tables were set up to replace the rows and rows of chairs that they'd had for the guests. While some people were leaving then, citing the late hour as their reason, the core group of young people (as well as Kaito's grandparents, for some reason) were committed to staying as late as they could to have a great time while they could.

Just like the ceremony itself hadn't been traditional, the reception was very laid-back and wasn't nearly as uptight as anything that would be most people's ideal—a perfect situation for the couple who'd gotten married. The first chance she'd had, Maki had gone to go sit somewhere by herself, letting Kaito go talk to everyone and hear everything that people felt need to be said to them, but she wasn't allowed to be alone so easily. "That wasn't terrible, now was it?" Kaede asked, putting on the sweetest voice she could as she sat down at the table across from where Maki had chosen to sit. "I think it went super well, if you ask me, but I guess you didn't ask me anything, huh?"

"Great observation there," she replied, propping her head up with a fist as her elbow rest on the table in front of her. "So great that I wish you'd never said anything to begin with. I can't believe we actually went through with that, I would've never guessed that it could happen so flawlessly with everyone here that was, well, here."

"But it did go flawlessly and that's what matters!" Shaking her hands excitedly at what she was saying, Kaede clearly noticed that Maki was not exactly up for conversation but pushed through anyway, her motivation being that she'd had to hear vows that had explained that the relationship being honored had been formed on that exact kind of behavior. "Now come on, you're being a thorn in everyone's side by sitting all by yourself and making your poor groom do all the talking. Don't you want him to have a _little_ bit of a voice left for when he's screaming your name later?"

Feeling her face getting warm underneath all her makeup, Maki looked away from Kaede's general direction as she answered with, "No, because if he's screaming my name then something's gone very wrong. We're more of a…talk less during, talk more after kind of couple, if you can believe that."

"Oh, trust me, I can believe it perfectly well." Winking, Kaede sat in her spot for a few more seconds before getting back up, straightening out the front of her dress before giving her friend a big smile. "Now I know that you're going to keep wanting to be alone and I can't change a thing about it, but you really should reconsider being such a grump tonight. If not for me, then do it for the man you married."

She didn't know how to respond and so she didn't, watching her friend rejoin what was left of the wedding's attendees across the way. Her head tilted back so that she could see the stars above, which were still just as bright and dazzling as they had been during the ceremony itself, and she couldn't help but crack a smile when she saw just how many of them there were up in the sky. When she'd first heard that their wedding was going to be held so far outside town, she'd been hesitant to accept the plan because she felt that there were places in town where they could have a nighttime wedding, but now that she could see the stars she understood why Kaito was set on this being the spot. He loved the stars almost as much as he loved her, if not more, and he obviously would do whatever he could to intertwine the two loves of his life in the biggest event he'd experienced thus far.

Making the choice to join Kaito wasn't one that she wanted to make, but she knew that keeping herself isolated would not give everyone that was still there a good impression of her or their relationship. Even still, while she was at his side going from person to person, she let him take the lead on all conversation, only putting in her personal input whenever she was asked for it. No one seemed to mind that she wasn't talking much, she wasn't exactly known as a big talker to begin with, and it wasn't once commented on (but she did see Kaede grinning at her from where she was in the middle of her own conversation, happy to see her doing what was expected).

In keeping with the theme of a non-traditional wedding, there was very little in the way of dancing and revelry that evening, with a promised "proper" reception to come at a later date when they could do it during the daytime. There were snacks and other refreshments to be enjoyed, and a small cake to be cut into and shared with everyone present, but the bigger events were on hold until they had that later reception—which was entirely Kaito's idea, because of his heart's desire for a nighttime wedding so far from home. Maki didn't exactly know all the details to that plan, but she knew that he was working hard on it and she trusted his judgment on that, just like everything else that night.

As their evening drew to a close, with the guests beginning to all grow tired and there still needing to be some clean-up of the area done before people could leave, the decision was made to call it a night and get everyone headed home. At the insistence of the remaining guests, the newlywed couple was allowed to leave without helping get the venue back into order, so that they could get to enjoying each other's company without so many others around in quick time. There was protesting, neither of them wanting to leave the work in everyone else's hands, but the group overall was persistent in their approach and refused to let them stay any longer than they already had, to get home and unwinding quickly.

"C'mon, just let us help a little," Kaito argued, even though he and Maki were both getting almost physically pushed by the group towards the car they were riding back in on their own. "We helped make this mess, least we can do is clean it up a bit."

"I think it would be best if you just left it to us," Shuichi replied, not usually one to pick up an argument like that with his closest friend, but he knew that if Kaito was going to listen to anyone's voice as one of reason, it would be his. "You did help make the mess but it was for a reason that shouldn't be your responsibility to clean up after. We can really take care of it."

Kaito indignantly shook his head, ready to argue back with something else, but Maki stepped in, the whole situation with cleaning getting to her head and her just wanting to hear it be over with. "Let's just listen to him and leave, if they're all so insistent on it. I'm fine with not cleaning anything, you should be too."

"Really, Maki Roll? Is that how you're going to act?" Pausing for a second, Kaito ended up laughing and patting her on the shoulder a couple times. "I guess there's no fighting it, if you want it, then we're gonna make it happen! We'll see you all around later, some of you sooner than others, but everyone better be there for the real reception when it happens!"

Their retreat into the waiting car was quick, and they were sent off with the waves of all of their friends that were present. "They are so going to get home and be all over each other, I can feel it," Kaede remarked, wringing her hands together for a moment before sighing. "Can't wait to hear him bragging about that at some point, like he does."

With a shrug, Shuichi replied, "I don't know, I think they'll save it for tomorrow. They both looked a bit too tired to want to do anything crazy tonight." Murmurs in the group broke out, over how everyone thought the night and following day were going to turn out for the couple, but no one expected that they'd spend the ride home basically on each other's lap, not kissing or groping but just holding the other as close as they could while still maintaining some semblance of safety. From there, the expectations were not only met, but succeeded, and the pair showed each other frequently just how much their love mattered.

That was to be expected, coming from a couple where one had never loved someone before they'd met the man they married, while the other had never once dreamt of giving up on getting the woman he married to open up to him. Their outlooks on life were constantly conflicting, but one thing remained true no matter what: Kaito and Maki were definitely, truly in love with each other, and nothing would change that. Not even a wedding that one of them hadn't wanted and the other had made into his greatest dream come true.

* * *

**A/N: I told myself and others I'd write mmhr wedding fic and so I did. the end.**


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